Kid, the next time I say, "Let's go someplace like Bolivia," let's GO someplace like Bolivia.

Main menu

Tossin’ It Out There: Who’s YOUR Favorite Movie Cop?

Lots of cops on the big screen this weekend. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña in “End of Watch”, Karl Urban dispensing futuristic justice as Judge Dredd, hell, there was even a cop in “House at the End of the Street”.

It’s par for the course. Each year sees the release of 1,387,534 cop movies into the theatre. From buddy cop movies, to mysteries/thrillers, to heist movies, “police officer” is one of the most widely portrayed occupations there is. And why not? There’s action and danger inherent in the job. They protect and serve… except when they’re “crooked”. Every country and every town everywhere has cops of some sort or another. Everyone can relate to those characters.

So who’s YOUR favorite? There are a gazillion to choose from. I’ll even allow FBI agents to be thrown into the mix (But no spies!! Sorry, James).

You have your comedic cops, like Axel Foley and Frank Drebin. Your action hero cops like John McClane and Martin Riggs. Or perhaps you prefer your cops to be more realistic… your “Based on real cops” cops such as Frank Serpico or Popeye Doyle.

Harry Callahan: I know what you’re thinking. “Did he fire six shots or only five?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

Malone(Connery): You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That’s* the *Chicago* way! And that’s how you get Capone. Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? I’m offering you a deal. Do you want this deal?

Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens. I’m cheating a little here, since he’s only on tv currently, but there was a movie adaptation of one of the Elmore Leonard books a few years back. Different actor though. Still, Timothy Olyphant is a badass.

‘The New Centurions’ is based very closely on Joe Wambaugh’s novel. And has old and wizened George C. Scott as a very young and idealistic Stacy Keach’s Training Officer. Needless to say, Keach wises up very quickly.

‘He Walked by Night’ had Richard Basehart as a serial psycho killer who sometimes used the L.A. sewer system to get from here to there. Pursued by a clutch of plain clothed detectives and Jack Webb as a techie.

Yes, I reviewed ‘The French Connection’ for Ruth at FC months ago. One of my more fun pieces of work. And we did trade comments. We see the
film very much the same way.

I’ve long been a fan of Bobby Gold from David Mamet’s Homicide; partly, I admit, this is because he’s such an antithetically loquacious Mamet protagonist, despite the fact that his entire job revolves around him using his words. (He’s a hostage negotiator.) Gold doesn’t do much talking throughout the film, at least not the sort of talking you’d expect from a man of words who uses speech to diffuse tense situations. So there’s something refreshing in that.

Then there’s his identity quest, which just fascinates me from a theological perspective– he’s Jewish, but he doesn’t identify as a Jew at all. He’s a cop first and foremost, until his work brings him into conflict with a Zionist conspiracy and he’s forced to choose between the two identities. It’s pretty gripping stuff. But then, that’s Mamet. The guy can write his ass off, even if he is a giant bastard in real life.

Beyond Gold, I’ll always have a soft spot for The Crow‘s Sergeant Albrecht. Forget that Ernie Hudson is a boss (well, no, don’t REALLY forget that), Albrecht is just the consummate good cop in a bad city, a man with morals and compassion and ethics trying to do the best job he can in a system that doesn’t really give a shit about the people it’s supposed to protect.

Okay, it’s maybe not a popular choice but I’d go for Harvey Keitel’s Bad Lieutenant. Not my favourite cop character but certainly my favourite performance. As for choosing a character, does DeNiro count for Midnight Run? (He used to be a cop)😉